Usage & Description

On the basis of statistics the Conference Call is not that much different from a purple-rarity Thinking shotgun, having about 5% lower accuracy but on average one more round in its magazine. Though it does have a lower projectile count, five projectiles to the Thinking's six, each of those projectiles do approximately 20% more damage, in effect retaining the same overall damage but dividing it over a smaller number of projectiles.

What sets the Conference Call apart is its special ability: projectiles fired by the weapon will periodically spawn two additional projectiles as they travel, up to four times per original projectile, as well as once when the original projectile impacts an inert surface or enemy. These additional projectiles shoot off horizontally perpendicular to the original projectiles, both "child" projectiles traveling in opposite directions from each other. This causes the Conference Call to deal higher damage against most targets and substantially higher damage versus larger enemies such as The Warrior or Terramorphous the Invincible, as well as being indirectly capable of bypassing physical shields such as those carried by Nomad Torturers. Its damage potential can also be raised significantly if obtained with the "Practicable" prefix and associated extra pellet count accessory, raising its initial projectile count from 5 to 7.

As with all shotguns, elemental Conference Calls do not suffer a damage penalty compared to non-elemental versions, making elemental varieties highly useful against element-vulnerable large bosses such as BNK-3R.

The Conference Call is an extraordinary weapon for use with Gaige'sAnarchy builds, because its characteristic traits (rate of fire, magazine size and special weapon effect) are the optimal companion to gain stacks and cause damage.

Notes

When used with Zer0's B0re skill, the Conference Call can hit multiple critical points.

Gaige's Close Enough skill combined with this weapon can help spread damage and/or DoT effects across multiple targets due to the sheer number of pellets being generated. This can be useful with a Slag variant, especially in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.

Trivia

A SHiFT code for a Social Conference Call is included with the Diamond Plate Loot Chest. This weapon is unique amongst the twelve weapons in the pack as the only one to use parts from multiple manufacturers, as it has a Jakobs scope. The caption on the weapon's card reads "Fires more projectiles than you can shake a TPS report at."

The Conference Call used to be a popular companion for The Bee shield due to the extreme damage they could inflict together, but Gearbox have since addressed the exploitative nature of the combination by dividing the Bee's amp damage among all the pellets of any given shot. This still makes the Conference Call perform rather well with the Bee, due to its low pellet count and unlisted projectiles each receiving the amplification attributed to the pellet it originated from.